Steve Lynch
I'm angry tonight, as I read some virtual dj propaganda that I disagree with, and it made me mad again about our karaoke situation, and now I've gotta' post again about vdj's karaoke capabilities.
It sort of works for karaoke, but I really don't see how you can sleep at night advertising it as a dj / vj / Karaoke program. it's abilities are crippled by the fact that it does not have a key changer, or a singer management section..
as far as I'm concerned, Virtual dj is pushing it when advertising karaoke. can it technically play a karaoke file? yes... is it usable for a working kj with a large rotation? hell no!
a professional KJ couldn't use this and run a big show without all sorts of external help like lists on paper, or having wordpad open, or whatever, and at that point, you might as well be using disks, because the very tasks that using a computer makes easier, are still needing to be done manually.
There are freeware karaoke players with more functionality than VDJ.
but unfortunately, vDJ continues to cater towards the european boom cha - boom cha club music market and ignore the needs of those of us who make our entire living by DJing and Karaoke!
to ignore the karaoke market is just plain lame.... I don't understrand why it's so hard to implement a singer manager, and a key changer?
From what I understand, v4 is still not going to be karaoke friendly. is this true?
guys, what do we have to do to get you to recognize that many of us here are dying for a full featured karaoke solution. and by that I mean one with pitch changer (not that cumbersome, and slow plugin someone wrote) and a singer list with rotation.
this is my 3rd time posting a post about karaoke, and still I've never had anyone from VDJ respons with any input at all...
why do you ignore us? I'm not asking when v4 comes out, I'm asking why development of one of your alleged "features" has never progressed past adding zip support?
please respond guys! What's the deal?
-Steve Lynch
It sort of works for karaoke, but I really don't see how you can sleep at night advertising it as a dj / vj / Karaoke program. it's abilities are crippled by the fact that it does not have a key changer, or a singer management section..
as far as I'm concerned, Virtual dj is pushing it when advertising karaoke. can it technically play a karaoke file? yes... is it usable for a working kj with a large rotation? hell no!
a professional KJ couldn't use this and run a big show without all sorts of external help like lists on paper, or having wordpad open, or whatever, and at that point, you might as well be using disks, because the very tasks that using a computer makes easier, are still needing to be done manually.
There are freeware karaoke players with more functionality than VDJ.
but unfortunately, vDJ continues to cater towards the european boom cha - boom cha club music market and ignore the needs of those of us who make our entire living by DJing and Karaoke!
to ignore the karaoke market is just plain lame.... I don't understrand why it's so hard to implement a singer manager, and a key changer?
From what I understand, v4 is still not going to be karaoke friendly. is this true?
guys, what do we have to do to get you to recognize that many of us here are dying for a full featured karaoke solution. and by that I mean one with pitch changer (not that cumbersome, and slow plugin someone wrote) and a singer list with rotation.
this is my 3rd time posting a post about karaoke, and still I've never had anyone from VDJ respons with any input at all...
why do you ignore us? I'm not asking when v4 comes out, I'm asking why development of one of your alleged "features" has never progressed past adding zip support?
please respond guys! What's the deal?
-Steve Lynch
Posted Sun 13 Aug 06 @ 7:22 am
Partyman
I second the motion!
Although I am just a lowly professional edition user, not an experienced user like yourself!
Although I am just a lowly professional edition user, not an experienced user like yourself!
Posted Sun 13 Aug 06 @ 9:10 am
vantinedj
We are so spoiled, aren't we? I don't mean this to be cruel, but remember the days of actually finding one of those big laser discs from Pioneer. You know, the ones as big as a turkey plate. Cuing it up and it didn't work. Open the big bulky drawer in about 15 seconds, try agin. The disc is scratched. Wipe it off ever so carefully becuase each disc cost $100.00. Putting it back in just in time for your singer to change the song..... Now we have to type, drag and push play. Yes, I agree, as a KJ myself VDJ would stand to use some sort of plugin to keep a rotation. PCDJ has one and it only crashed my computer. VDJ does not. I would take stability over a list any day. And from a past post, and I am not 100% certain maybe someone else can assist me here, in V4.0 there will be an improvement for a key changer. Yes, the plugin is not too good, but I am able to run a show from it. I just open wordpad on the side and there you go. I also utilize the side list as my rotation of songs for karaoke. Something that would be very cool, at least to me if they could do it would be color code the files. For example, blue for a karaoke file, red for a music video extention, green for music files. You know in the search list themselves. I think that would organize things better. Not sure if that could be done but I think it would be cool. What do you think? Well, good luck and keep spinnin...
Posted Sun 13 Aug 06 @ 5:31 pm
bagpuss
Virtual DJs karaoke support came as a nice FREE Bonus (when it did), The core of the program is based on DJ'ing, Not VJ'ing, Not KJ'ing, hence Virtual DJ. Video and karaoke support came later by the request of some users, all such updates came FREE although some users who only DJ weren't happy with this decision as they saw the program becoming a jack of all trades rather than master of one. Personally I see it as the best DJ solution out there with some killer Video and karaoke features thrown in for good measure.
Again my final sentence will include a mention of "Virtual DJ 4", it's a NEW update, it's FREE and here SOON, and again, although it's a Major Audio update (which the majority of users have been crying out for), remember it's a point zero release, it's bound to be a balanced update. As long as you don't believe that the updates stop at 4.0 you shouldn't be disappointed.
Again my final sentence will include a mention of "Virtual DJ 4", it's a NEW update, it's FREE and here SOON, and again, although it's a Major Audio update (which the majority of users have been crying out for), remember it's a point zero release, it's bound to be a balanced update. As long as you don't believe that the updates stop at 4.0 you shouldn't be disappointed.
Posted Sun 13 Aug 06 @ 8:16 pm
nickgoodman
It's fine for karaoke - so you have to use the karaoke 'request' slips to rotate the users and a plugin for the keychanger. SO WHAT??
How many other karaoke programs allow you mix in a video straight after or record the singer then play it back to them after all within one program.
How many other karaoke programs allow you mix in a video straight after or record the singer then play it back to them after all within one program.
Posted Mon 14 Aug 06 @ 4:03 pm
elite1
I agree with you nickgoodman, it works just fine. Sure, there could be some tweaks to it, but EVERY program out could use some tweaking! We've all gotten way too lazy it seems and forget just what a simplistic life we're all actually living these days.
As far as using it for large rotations, what's the problem with VDJ? I think the problem is with the host if you can't handle it. My rotation just last night was 43 the first go around and I didn't have any problems at all. My biggest problem is that the crowd sees the videos in between and loves them and wants them to play out. Can't do that with a huge rotation, so it's just teasing them, yet they love it.
As far as using it for large rotations, what's the problem with VDJ? I think the problem is with the host if you can't handle it. My rotation just last night was 43 the first go around and I didn't have any problems at all. My biggest problem is that the crowd sees the videos in between and loves them and wants them to play out. Can't do that with a huge rotation, so it's just teasing them, yet they love it.
Posted Mon 14 Aug 06 @ 11:16 pm
Steve Lynch
elite and nick, you're making excuses for the software... I love vdj, and I'm not knocking it, I'm just trying to get the point across that today's professional mobile dj's need some different things than the club dj's. many of us are full time mobiles... very few are full time club dj's with no other job. It's in the interest of everyone to have the most full featured program available. This forum is for feedback, and to promote discussion. that's what I'm doing!
I can mix mp3 and video, and record singer's performances to their own personal folders and burn them a disk at the end of the night, with a $50.00 program called roxbox. I can also do it with sax n' dotty's, swift elite, mtu hoster, PCDJ, and even with the freeware autokdj.
why do I want virtual dj to do it? because I get to use my dac 3, I have record cases, and I can beat mix video. not only that, I believe virtual dj can do it better.
a singer rotation manager with onscreen display is the natural progression of karaoke. singers want to see when they're coming up I want to be able to stack a few songs on top of each other in the singer's list.
Of course it can be done on paper, but karaoke can also be done with disks.
I run the most high tech, and high quality show in atlanta, I'm not gonna' back up to old school technology. Hell, I don't even use singer slips anymore... you don't have to with computers....
singers tell you, and you put them in... easy. besides, my system is self contained, and there's no room for slips....
I can easily keep jumping between two programs like I do now.... the main reason for wanting to do it out of one program is that virtual dj locks the asio drivers, so if you're using a card like the maya 44 or gigaport, you can't run vdj and winamp off the same card.. vdj won't release control of channels 1 + 2.
It's got nothing to do with being lazy... it's got to do with progression... if you're such a purist, why are you using VDJ? why aren't you still using cd's or better yet, vinyl?
It makes no sense to do an hour setup, setting up 12,000 watts of qsc plx power, running a 100' snake, setting up stage monitors, and loading in 4 jbl srx 700 subs and two jbl srx dual 15" tops, dmx controlled led lighting, hazer, lcd projector, and then running karaoke like they did in the 80's. slips are old news. the software should handle it.
the thing is, it's such a small task to add that feature, I don't understand why they don't do it.
-Steve
I can mix mp3 and video, and record singer's performances to their own personal folders and burn them a disk at the end of the night, with a $50.00 program called roxbox. I can also do it with sax n' dotty's, swift elite, mtu hoster, PCDJ, and even with the freeware autokdj.
why do I want virtual dj to do it? because I get to use my dac 3, I have record cases, and I can beat mix video. not only that, I believe virtual dj can do it better.
a singer rotation manager with onscreen display is the natural progression of karaoke. singers want to see when they're coming up I want to be able to stack a few songs on top of each other in the singer's list.
Of course it can be done on paper, but karaoke can also be done with disks.
I run the most high tech, and high quality show in atlanta, I'm not gonna' back up to old school technology. Hell, I don't even use singer slips anymore... you don't have to with computers....
singers tell you, and you put them in... easy. besides, my system is self contained, and there's no room for slips....
I can easily keep jumping between two programs like I do now.... the main reason for wanting to do it out of one program is that virtual dj locks the asio drivers, so if you're using a card like the maya 44 or gigaport, you can't run vdj and winamp off the same card.. vdj won't release control of channels 1 + 2.
It's got nothing to do with being lazy... it's got to do with progression... if you're such a purist, why are you using VDJ? why aren't you still using cd's or better yet, vinyl?
It makes no sense to do an hour setup, setting up 12,000 watts of qsc plx power, running a 100' snake, setting up stage monitors, and loading in 4 jbl srx 700 subs and two jbl srx dual 15" tops, dmx controlled led lighting, hazer, lcd projector, and then running karaoke like they did in the 80's. slips are old news. the software should handle it.
the thing is, it's such a small task to add that feature, I don't understand why they don't do it.
-Steve
Posted Tue 15 Aug 06 @ 1:41 am
cstoll
Steve - 3 points and don't expect a rebutle, debate or reply to any comments you make about what I make.
1. Is VirtualDJ a Karaoke DJ's focused software program? No, if you read the vision of the program from the home page it's inspiration was aroung the bedroom DJ. Most bedroom DJ's end up in the clubs or mobiles doing parties and weddings - don't know many DJs that started at home singing karaoke to the mirror.
2. Let's talk about getting the 'point' across - I resisted the last couple posts you had a couple months ago, I even resisted this one until you decided to reply to your own post and bounced back and at the only two guys that are quite happy with the karaoke capabilities and obviously know how to handle a KJ gig.
3. You know some times it is all in the tone. You say you want Atomix to stand up and notice your needs. You think it is so simple to implement and shouldn't take any time to make your wishes come true. How about a couple of suggestions :
a. Be nice and post constructive suggestions and not label them as 'rants'
b. Spend some time looking at how to build a skin and just how easy it is - I mean it's just pictures and graphics - so simple?
c. Go to the website's menu bar and choose Downloads - Other - Developer SDK - DAC3 Mapper [here I will make it easy for you - http://www.virtualdj.com/support/developers/controllers.html ] and look at the simplicity in the code it took to make your DAC 3 work so well.
My point Steve, just like my reply sounds so negative and will start a flame of acts - it accomplishes nothing. Have you seen the market and where the DJ and VJ communities are going?? You have listed several great KJ products and you are right VirtualDJ could be the next, however it's current market base has a HUGE demand and it's coming from the competition.
I support your intentions and I just think you direct them in the wrong way. Make posts in the 'New features' and for ALL those reading this post 'Please' don't get upset when your suggestion doesn't make it in the version updates that immediately follow your suggestions. These things do take time - 4 months of Beta testing to go from 3.4 to 4.0, I think that says alot.
Again to all the KJs and Steve, I agree and will support the recommendations moving forward. Just change the tack in how you request them.
Chris
1. Is VirtualDJ a Karaoke DJ's focused software program? No, if you read the vision of the program from the home page it's inspiration was aroung the bedroom DJ. Most bedroom DJ's end up in the clubs or mobiles doing parties and weddings - don't know many DJs that started at home singing karaoke to the mirror.
2. Let's talk about getting the 'point' across - I resisted the last couple posts you had a couple months ago, I even resisted this one until you decided to reply to your own post and bounced back and at the only two guys that are quite happy with the karaoke capabilities and obviously know how to handle a KJ gig.
3. You know some times it is all in the tone. You say you want Atomix to stand up and notice your needs. You think it is so simple to implement and shouldn't take any time to make your wishes come true. How about a couple of suggestions :
a. Be nice and post constructive suggestions and not label them as 'rants'
b. Spend some time looking at how to build a skin and just how easy it is - I mean it's just pictures and graphics - so simple?
c. Go to the website's menu bar and choose Downloads - Other - Developer SDK - DAC3 Mapper [here I will make it easy for you - http://www.virtualdj.com/support/developers/controllers.html ] and look at the simplicity in the code it took to make your DAC 3 work so well.
My point Steve, just like my reply sounds so negative and will start a flame of acts - it accomplishes nothing. Have you seen the market and where the DJ and VJ communities are going?? You have listed several great KJ products and you are right VirtualDJ could be the next, however it's current market base has a HUGE demand and it's coming from the competition.
I support your intentions and I just think you direct them in the wrong way. Make posts in the 'New features' and for ALL those reading this post 'Please' don't get upset when your suggestion doesn't make it in the version updates that immediately follow your suggestions. These things do take time - 4 months of Beta testing to go from 3.4 to 4.0, I think that says alot.
Again to all the KJs and Steve, I agree and will support the recommendations moving forward. Just change the tack in how you request them.
Chris
Posted Tue 15 Aug 06 @ 2:44 am